Intermediate
30 min

Enhance your electrical control with TPS22918 and PIC18F2458 combo

Revolutionize your electrical control with solid-state relays

SolidSwitch Click with EasyPIC v8

Published Nov 01, 2023

Click board™

SolidSwitch Click

Dev Board

EasyPIC v8

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

PIC18F2458

Experience a new era of electrical control with our solid-state relay innovations, designed to meet the demands of modern technology

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Hardware Overview

How does it work?

SolidSwitch Click is based on the TPS22918, a 5.5V 2A load switch from Texas Instruments. To reduce voltage drop for low voltage and high current rails, every TPS22918 implements a low resistance N-channel MOSFET, reducing the drop-out voltage across the device. An ON/OFF input on the ON pin of the TPS22918 controls the switches. The ON pin is compatible with the standard GPIO logic threshold and can be used with any MCU with 1V or higher GPIO voltage. That’s why the control of all switches is established via the port expander, the MAX7323. This Click board™ is designed to operate from an external supply voltage range from 1V to 5.5V. The TPS22918 works regardless of power sequencing order. The order in which

voltages are applied to the VIN terminal and ON pin of the load switch will not damage the device as long as the voltages stay within the absolute maximum operating conditions. SolidSwitch Click communicates with MCU through the MAX7323 port expander using the standard I2C 2-Wire interface with a frequency of up to 400kHz. It also has two address pins (A0 and A1) programmed by the user to determine the value of the last two LSBs of the slave address, selected by onboard SMD jumpers labeled as ADDR SEL to an appropriate position marked as 0 and 1, allowing selection of the slave address LSBs. Also, this Click board™ has a Reset pin, routed to the RST pin on the mikroBUS™ socket, which clears the serial

interface in case of a bus lockup, terminating any serial transaction to or from the MAX7323. Also, it uses an additional pin, the INT pin of the mikroBUS™ socket, which automatically flags data changes on any of the I/O ports of the MAX7323 used as inputs. The interrupt output INT and all transition flags are de-asserted when the MAX7323 is accessed through the serial interface. This Click board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. Also, it comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.

SolidSwitch Click hardware overview image

Features overview

Development board

EasyPIC v8 is a development board specially designed for the needs of rapid development of embedded applications. It supports many high pin count 8-bit PIC microcontrollers from Microchip, regardless of their number of pins, and a broad set of unique functions, such as the first-ever embedded debugger/programmer. The development board is well organized and designed so that the end-user has all the necessary elements, such as switches, buttons, indicators, connectors, and others, in one place. Thanks to innovative manufacturing technology, EasyPIC v8 provides a fluid and immersive working experience, allowing access anywhere and under any

circumstances at any time. Each part of the EasyPIC v8 development board contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. In addition to the advanced integrated CODEGRIP programmer/debugger module, which offers many valuable programming/debugging options and seamless integration with the Mikroe software environment, the board also includes a clean and regulated power supply module for the development board. It can use a wide range of external power sources, including a battery, an external 12V power supply, and a power source via the USB Type-C (USB-C) connector.

Communication options such as USB-UART, USB DEVICE, and CAN are also included, including the well-established mikroBUS™ standard, two display options (graphical and character-based LCD), and several different DIP sockets. These sockets cover a wide range of 8-bit PIC MCUs, from the smallest PIC MCU devices with only eight up to forty pins. EasyPIC v8 is an integral part of the Mikroe ecosystem for rapid development. Natively supported by Mikroe software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping and development thanks to a considerable number of different Click boards™ (over a thousand boards), the number of which is growing every day.

EasyPIC v8 horizontal image

Microcontroller Overview

MCU Card / MCU

default

Architecture

PIC

MCU Memory (KB)

24

Silicon Vendor

Microchip

Pin count

28

RAM (Bytes)

2048

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

NC
NC
AN
Reset
RA0
RST
NC
NC
CS
NC
NC
SCK
NC
NC
MISO
NC
NC
MOSI
Power Supply
3.3V
3.3V
Ground
GND
GND
NC
NC
PWM
Interrupt
RB1
INT
NC
NC
TX
NC
NC
RX
I2C Clock
RC3
SCL
I2C Data
RC4
SDA
NC
NC
5V
Ground
GND
GND
2

Take a closer look

Schematic

SolidSwitch Click Schematic schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

EasyPIC v8 front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the EasyPIC v8 as your development board.

EasyPIC v8 front image hardware assembly
LTE IoT 5 Click front image hardware assembly
MCU DIP 28 hardware assembly
LTE IoT 5 Click complete accessories setup image hardware assembly
EasyPIC v8 28pin-DIP Access - upright/background hardware assembly
Necto image step 2 hardware assembly
Necto image step 3 hardware assembly
Necto image step 4 hardware assembly
NECTO Compiler Selection Step Image hardware assembly
NECTO Output Selection Step Image hardware assembly
Necto image step 6 hardware assembly
Necto DIP image step 7 hardware assembly
Necto image step 8 hardware assembly
Necto image step 9 hardware assembly
Necto image step 10 hardware assembly
Necto PreFlash Image hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output via UART Mode

1. Once the code example is loaded, pressing the "FLASH" button initiates the build process, and programs it on the created setup.

2. After the programming is completed, click on the Tools icon in the upper-right panel, and select the UART Terminal.

3. After opening the UART Terminal tab, first check the baud rate setting in the Options menu (default is 115200). If this parameter is correct, activate the terminal by clicking the "CONNECT" button.

4. Now terminal status changes from Disconnected to Connected in green, and the data is displayed in the Received data field.

UART_Application_Output

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for SolidSwitch Click driver.

Key functions:

  • solidswitch_write_single - SolidSwitch I2C writing logic state function.

  • solidswitch_read_single - SolidSwitch I2C reading logic state function.

  • solidswitch_reset - Click Default Configuration function.

Open Source

Code example

This example can be found in NECTO Studio. Feel free to download the code, or you can copy the code below.

/*!
 * @file main.c
 * @brief SolidSwitch Click example
 *
 * # Description
 * This example demonstrates the use of SolidSwitch click board.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 *
 * ## Application Init
 * Initializes the driver and logger and enables the click board.
 *
 * ## Application Task
 * Enables different outputs every 3 seconds and displays all enabled 
 * outputs on USB UART.
 *
 * @author Stefan Filipovic
 *
 */

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "solidswitch.h"

static solidswitch_t solidswitch;
static log_t logger;

/**
 * @brief Displays all enabled channels on USB UART.
 * @details This function reads logic state of outputs and 
 *          displays all enabled channels on USB UART.
 * 
 * @return None.
 * @note None.
 */
static void solidswitch_display_enabled_channels ( void );

void application_init ( void ) 
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;  /**< Logger config object. */
    solidswitch_cfg_t solidswitch_cfg;  /**< Click config object. */

    /** 
     * Logger initialization.
     * Default baud rate: 115200
     * Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
     * @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX 
     * are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will 
     * need to define them manually for log to work. 
     * See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
     */
    LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
    log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Init " );

    // Click initialization.

    solidswitch_cfg_setup( &solidswitch_cfg );
    SOLIDSWITCH_MAP_MIKROBUS( solidswitch_cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    err_t init_flag = solidswitch_init( &solidswitch, &solidswitch_cfg );
    if ( init_flag == I2C_MASTER_ERROR ) 
    {
        log_error( &logger, " Application Init Error. " );
        log_info( &logger, " Please, run program again... " );

        for ( ; ; );
    }

    solidswitch_default_cfg ( &solidswitch );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}

void application_task ( void ) 
{
    solidswitch_write_single ( &solidswitch, SOLIDSWITCH_ENABLE_OUT0 | SOLIDSWITCH_ENABLE_OUT1 );
    solidswitch_display_enabled_channels( );
    Delay_ms ( 3000 );
    solidswitch_write_single ( &solidswitch, SOLIDSWITCH_ENABLE_OUT6 | SOLIDSWITCH_ENABLE_OUT7 );
    solidswitch_display_enabled_channels( );
    Delay_ms ( 3000 );
    solidswitch_write_single ( &solidswitch, SOLIDSWITCH_ENABLE_ALL_OUTPUTS );
    solidswitch_display_enabled_channels( );
    Delay_ms ( 3000 );
    solidswitch_write_single ( &solidswitch, SOLIDSWITCH_DISABLE_ALL_OUTPUTS );
    solidswitch_display_enabled_channels( );
    Delay_ms ( 3000 );
}

void main ( void ) 
{
    application_init( );

    for ( ; ; ) 
    {
        application_task( );
    }
}

static void solidswitch_display_enabled_channels ( void )
{
    uint8_t logic_state;
    uint8_t enabled_flag = 0;
    
    solidswitch_read_single ( &solidswitch, &logic_state );
    log_printf( &logger, " Outputs enabled: " );
    for ( uint8_t cnt = 0; cnt < 8; cnt++ )
    {
        if ( logic_state & 1 )
        {
            if ( enabled_flag == 1 )
            {
                log_printf( &logger, ", %u", ( uint16_t ) cnt );
            }
            else
            {
                log_printf( &logger, " %u", ( uint16_t ) cnt );
            }
            enabled_flag = 1;
        }
        logic_state >>= 1;
    }
    
    if ( enabled_flag == 0 )
    {
        log_printf( &logger, " none" );
    }
    log_printf( &logger, "\r\n-----------------------\r\n" );
}

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END

Additional Support

Resources

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